'Til There Was You - Jerry Cole Page 0,28

about his eyes for God’s sake!” she exclaimed dramatically. “Or his smile! Something!”

Finn smirked and shook his head. “I was just telling you why I was late to see Zac – and as to the big old dick... if you had seen it, you’d be saying the same thing.”

“You saw it?”

“Well... no. But the tent he was pitching with it. Honestly, for every other gay man’s sake, I hope he’s a bottom. That thing would come out my damn mouth if he tried to top me.”

Clarice burst into laughter, and soon Finn joined in. As usual, seeing his best friend had made him feel slightly better... if only slightly. There was still the issue with his son, and his personal life in general. Both were a mess and try as he might, Finn just couldn’t see a way out.

Maybe Clarice was right? Finn wasn’t even into Austin, yet the first thing he spoke about the moment he sat down was how he’d gone to the guy’s house, and how the dude had a boner the size of Center Point Tower. It was a story told in jest, but the fact that it was at the front of his mind was surely telling. Finn claimed he wanted to grow up, but did everything he could to stop it from happening.

“Maybe I should just move overseas already...” Finn mumbled into his now empty glass. Ever since college, Finn had talked about moving overseas to work. He didn’t know where, or to do what. He just knew that doing so would be symbolic of change, in a good way. If everything in his life ever fell apart to such a point that he couldn’t fix it, moving overseas would be his tonic.

Clarice snatched the glass from his hand and started to make him another drink. “This again, hey. It usually takes you a few more before you start up on—”

“Seriously!” Finn protested. “Why not? What do I really have keeping me here?”

“Your son?” She pushed the drink back in front of him. “How about that?”

“Yeah well... maybe he’s better off without me.”

To this most dire statement, Clarice said nothing. Rather, she went back to cleaning the glasses, even acting as if Finn hadn’t spoken. What made this even worse was that Finn interpreted it as a silent agreement, that his son would be better off without him. Finn wanted to be a part of his life, but dropped the ball whenever the chance came. Honestly, he was just about ready to give up altogether. What was the point?

“So, what’s on for the rest of the night?” Clarice eventually spoke up. “More wallowing in self-pity?”

Finn was just about to answer when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. It was a familiar vibration too; one he was so very much familiar with by now. It was Datematch, of course, and where he knew that opening that app, meeting up with some random and having casual sex was not the answer to his problems, he also knew he couldn’t stop himself. He really did have a problem.

“Something like that,” Finn mumbled as he fished out his phone, opened the app and saw that he’d matched with a total fuckboy hottie with a cock like a stallion.

Clarice leaned across the bar to get a better look at the match. “He’ll do.”

“No,” Finn muttered as he sent off a quick message. “He won’t.”

Chapter Nine

“I swear, I’m not usually this... ah... what’s the word?” Austin grimaced as he tried to come up with a way to describe how he currently looked, without drawing direct comparisons to the homeless.

“Dirty? Overgrown? Shabby? Sixties folk-singer-ish?” Finn rattled off from over Austin’s shoulder. “Yeah, I really hope not.”

Austin pressed his lips together so as to contain his smile. “I like the sixties folk-singer comparison though. Makes me sound like I had a purpose behind the look.”

“As opposed to your clear protest against showers and haircuts?” Finn joked. “And fashion in general.”

“Yes, that.” Austin’s body shook from withheld laughter. He had known that Finn was funny, but he had no idea how hilarious the guy actually was. “Although to be fair to me—”

“Will you please sit still!” the flamboyant hairdresser, Steffan, shrieked as he ran a pair of clippers over Austin’s thin, half-grown beard. “I am trying to work here. If you come out looking like a poodle, I cannot be held responsible!”

“Sorry,” Finn apologized.

“Yeah... sorry,” Austin grimaced. His eyes then flicked back to Finn, who met them and winked. The two